Doha, Qatar | 

The organisers of the inaugural World Beach Games that kicked off this week have heaped praise on Qatar for stepping in to host the event at short notice after San Diego pulled out.

More than 1,500 athletes competing in sports from beach volleyball to skateboarding have descended on the tiny peninsula emirate for the event, which organisers hope will raise the profile of smaller sports.

"It's a great choice because Qatar is used to organising big sports competitions," said Gunilla Lindberg, secretary general of the Association of National Olympic Committees.

"I'm absolutely sure (Qatar) was the right choice."

ANOC was left to scout out alternatives to San Diego when the California coastal city pulled out in May after four years of planning, citing financial constraints.

While several other cities put in a bid to host, Doha won out because of its experience staging major events and ready-made infrastructure, Lindberg told AFP.

The event, partially held at Doha's beachside Katara cultural village, has avoided the thin crowds that dogged the early days of the recent World Athletics Championships.

The World Beach Games were created by the world's Olympic committees and announced in 2015, with 97 countries sending competitors to the Doha event that started Friday and ends Wednesday. 

A beach tennis qualifier between Chile and Portugal on Saturday saw the temporary sea-view stands filled by small but noisy contingents from each country, alongside hundreds of curious expat workers.

- 'It's amazing' -

"It's a new event, so the stands are not so big -- but we have opened up for everyone to come," said Lindberg.

Qatar has invested heavily in infrastructure for big-ticket events like the 2022 World Cup and the World Athletics Championships. 

But Doha has also hosted smaller competitions, including the 2015 World Handball Championship and the 2016 cycling Road World Championships.

Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at Britain's Salford University, said ahead of the athletics championships that Qatar sees sporting events as part of its national security effort.

Such events help make Qatar "visible, relevant and important" as well as deterring potential aggressors, he said.

Qatar is embroiled in a bitter two-year-long dispute with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which accuse Doha of backing Saudi regional rival Iran and radical Islamists.

They have cut direct transport links, closed airspace to Qatari aircraft and restricted their citizens from visiting over the claims, which Doha denies.

French three-on-three basketball coach Yann Julien praised Qatar for preparing the games in "record time". 

"It's really well organised," he said, applauding the transportation and provision of air conditioned tents for athletes to cool down in.

The beach games' first edition was due to take place in San Diego .

Reports said organisers were struggling to raise funds to put on the event.

Qatar has "done a good job with the transportation and the setup of the venues," said Lindberg, adding that organisers had just six days to shift from the athletics championships to the beach games.

"It's amazing."

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Paris, France |FIFA is hoping to renegotiate contracts already signed for the next women's World Cup in 2023 as it looks to increase the amount of money going to players, sources have told AFP.

"FIFA plan to renegotiate contracts for the women's World Cup in order to offer much greater bonuses to players," a source said ahead of a FIFA Council meeting in Shanghai on Thursday.

Women's football will feature heavily on the agenda at the meeting as world football's governing body plans to increase the number of competing teams at the World Cup to 32, up from 24 at this year's tournament in France.

Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, has already promised to double the prize fund for the next tournament having initially raised overall contributions from $15 million to $50 million in time for this year's competition.

On Thursday, FIFA are also expected to rubberstamp plans already announced by Infantino to double funding for the women's game to $1 billion over the next four years.

The money will come from the organisation's vast cash reserves of more than $2.7 billion. "We don't need all this money in the Swiss banks, they have enough money," said Infantino in July.

In addition, FIFA are also exploring the possibility of creating a women's World League -- along the lines of UEFA's Nations League -- as well as a Club World Cup for women.

A decision on the creation of these tournaments will be made in March next year.

Thursday's meeting will also see FIFA appoint a host for the 2021 men's Club World Cup, which will feature 24 teams for the first time.

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Bangkok, Thailand | Tributes have poured in to the unstoppable Marc Marquez with the Spaniard hailed as "incredible" and "unbelievable" after he clinched his sixth MotoGP crown and eighth world title overall on Sunday.

MotoGP rivals, Marquez's own brother and Formula One greats joined a chorus of congratulations for the daring 26-year-old who dived under Fabio Quartararo on the final bend to win the Thailand MotoGP and seal the title in a pulsating last-lap duel.

The win gave him an insurmountable lead over closest rival Andrea Dovizioso, who was gracious despite another season in Marquez's shadow.

"We can speak and analyse all the things but at the end if you check his score it's something unbelievable," the Ducati rider told MotoGP.com.

Marquez has dominated the sport. Since 2013 he has only failed to win the world championship once -- in 2015. 

The 2019 title is his fourth straight and Marquez described this year as his "best" season ever. No one is disputing his assessment.

British rider Cal Crutchlow pointed out that Marquez has finished first or second in every race apart from one -- the Grand Prix of The Americas when a mechanical problem caused him to crash when leading on the ninth lap in Austin.

"He's an incredible talent," said Crutchlow, who is ninth in the standings. "I think he should just retire and give everyone else a chance," he joked.

Marquez is from a racing family and his younger brother Alex finished fifth in the Moto2 race in Buriram and is leading the class standings.

If there is a sibling rivalry it was hard to see in Alex's endearing tweet about his brother's achievement.

"Once again you leave us all speechless!" he said on his official account which showed a photo of the two brothers smiling after the win.

"In spite of your eight championships, you'll still be the 'little twerp' brother that you are."

With six premier-class titles, Marquez surpasses Australian legend Mick Doohan.

He trails only Italian great Valentino Rossi, who won the last of his seven championships in 2009, and Giacomo Agostini, whose record eighth came in 1975.

Rossi predicted he will break both.

"I don't think he'll struggle to reach nine," he told GPOne.com.

Spanish Formula One double world champion Fernando Alonso tweeted his congratulations, calling Marquez a "phenomenon."

Formula One driver Pierre Gasly, who attended the race before heading to Suzuka for next weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, tweeted: "What a race, what a battle in the last lap."

French rookie Quartararo, 20, led most of the way but was left in awe of Marquez.

"It's just incredible what he achieved, what he does with the bike," Quartararo told MotoGP.com. 

"He will be there for a long time."

joe/dh

New York, United States |

Internationally known for her lavish lifestyle and glam taste, silver screen siren Elizabeth Taylor also boasted a playful side, and now some of her personal effects that bared it are hitting the auction block.

Items including a gold vermeil link belt, a sumptuous silk caftan and a studded black leather Versace biker jacket belonging to the late Hollywood legend will travel across the Atlantic on the famed Queen Mary 2 ocean liner, giving guests a first glimpse at Taylor's treasures.

Following the actress' death in 2011 at age 79, a week-long Christie's auction in New York of her vast collection of luxury dresses, jewels and fine art saw total sales topping $156 million.

But this time the items anticipated to go for a wide range of price points show the side of a larger-than-life woman -- known for starring roles in classics like "Cleopatra" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" -- her closest friends and family knew.

"The icon on screen isn't the grandmother that I would hang out with around the house," said her grandson Quinn Tivey, a 33-year-old artist who is an ambassador for The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

"I don't really know Elizabeth Taylor the celebrity," Tivey told AFP aboard the enormous ocean liner his grandmother frequented, on which he will make the week-long journey with the preview of her items.

"To me she was just grandma."

Martin Nolan -- the executive director of Julien's Auctions, which is hosting the sale -- says some items like Taylor's scarves or costume jewelry carry pre-sale estimates of $200 to $400, meaning not only institutions and members of the upper crust will have a chance at taking something home.

"I think people will be surprised that they will be able to actually acquire and afford to have something from the amazing Elizabeth Taylor," he told AFP. 

After their voyage across the Atlantic and to the Newbridge Silverware's Museum of Style Icons in Ireland, Taylor's effects will be taken to California, with bidding December 6-8 online and in person at a Beverly Hills exhibition.

The gold coin-chain belt from Cartier was a gift Taylor gave to her mother to match one of her own, which she engraved with the message: "To My 'Hippy' Mom All my love Elizabeth."

The house estimates the belt could go for between $1,000 and $2,000, while the aforementioned leather jacket -- which Taylor wore in 1992 on Johnny Carson's iconic talk show -- carries an estimated price tag of $4,000 to $6,000.

Tivey remembers growing up watching movies with his grandmother, her frequent advice on his love life -- and even swiping the jacket from Taylor's closet on occasion to give it a try.

He hopes that whoever buys it will "actually wear it" and share her style with the public.

Fascination with Taylor's rich legacy persists because "she was true to herself," Tivey said.

"She was never one to let fear be the deciding factor," he said. "She always followed her heart."

"She always had the courage to do what she thought was right.

mdo/acb

Paris, France | 

Leonardo da Vinci is the star in a blockbuster retrospective opening  at the Louvre museum in Paris to mark 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master.

Some 240,000 people have already reserved their place in line for the exhibition, the biggest ever organised to showcase the Tuscan polymath's indelible contributions to humanity -- with an emphasis on his painting. 

A decade in the planning, the show simply titled "Leonardo da Vinci" groups 162 works, including 24 drawings loaned by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from the Royal Collection.

The British Museum, the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg and the Vatican have also contributed, as well as, of course, Italy -- after a sometimes acrimonious tug-of-war between Rome and Paris over the loans.

The exhibition in the Hall Napoleon, which runs until February 24, features 10 of the fewer than 20 paintings definitively attributed to the Renaissance master, as well as drawings, manuscripts, sculptures and other objets d'art.

The show walks the visitor through the timeline of the master's peripatetic career under the tutelage of dukes, princes and kings, from Florence to Milan, Venice and Rome, and finally France, where he spent the last three years of his life.

He died in the historic town of Amboise in the Loire Valley on May 2, 1519.

- Two no-shows -

Two standout works are missing from the show, starting with the Mona Lisa.

Organisers decided the world's most famous painting should remain in the Louvre's Salle des Etats -- its normal home -- to help avoid overcrowding.

As it is, the masterpiece attracts nearly 30,000 people a day.

The Mona Lisa's ineffable smile will however beguile visitors in a virtual reality experience at the end of the show.

The other notable no-show is the Salvator Mundi, the work that became the most expensive painting ever sold when it fetched $450 million (400 million euros) at a Christie’s auction in 2017.

Mystery now surrounds the painting -- whose authenticity is disputed by some experts -- as it has not been seen in public ever since the record-shattering sale.

The Louvre has said the museum's request to borrow the work is still pending, but a last-minute appearance would be a stunning surprise.

- The Vitruvian Man - 

The final act in the row between Paris and Rome over Italy's contributions to the show came with a legal effort to halt the loan of the iconic Vitruvian Man drawing.

The Vitruvian Man -- which Italian media say is insured for at least one billion euros -- joined the Louvre show with just days to spare before the opening. It will stay only eight weeks rather than the full four months.

The exhibition curated by the Louvre's Vincent Delieuvin and Louis Frank, the heads of the museum's painting and graphic arts departments, includes infrared reflectographs that offer an insight into the master painter's techniques.

gd/txw

Bet Shemesh, Israel | The remains of a sixth-century Byzantine church dedicated to an unnamed "glorious martyr" with elaborate mosaics, a rare crypt and a large collection of lamps were unveiled in central Israel on Wednesday.

The complex, which spans over a third of an acre, was found during salvage excavations ahead of the construction of a new neighbourhood for the city Bet Shemesh, west of Jerusalem.

The mosaics in the church depict themes from nature, such as leaves, birds and fruit, as well as geometrical elements, with imported capitals topping pillars, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, which carried out the excavation.

Most of the construction of the church began during the reign of Emperor Justinian, who ruled between 527-565, with a chapel added later under Emperor Tiberius II Constantine, with rare financial support from him, the IAA said in a statement.

An underground burial chamber with two separate staircases leading to and from it was found, making it one of the few churches with fully intact crypts to be found in Israel's limits, said Benjamin Storchan, who directed the excavation for the IAA.

The church was dedicated to a "glorious martyr," whose identity has eluded the researchers working on the find for the past three years, but the "exceptional opulence of the structure and its inscriptions indicate that this person was an important figure," said Storchan.

Diggers also found what they believe to be "the most complete collection of Byzantine glass windows and lamps ever found at a single site in Israel."

The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, which is hosting a display on some of the finds, said that lighting in churches, often perceived as "the representation of the divine," enhanced the "dramatic environment for a powerful religious experiment."

With its location near Jerusalem, the Church of the Glorious Martyr was most likely a significant pilgrimage site for Christians en route to the Holy City, the museum said.

jjm/mjs/dr